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Colombia: Chavez gave $300M to FARC terrorists
Hot Air ^ | March 03, 2008 | by Ed Morrissey

Posted on 03/03/2008 2:20:48 PM PST by jdm

As Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador prepare to have their armies make a run for the borders, Alvaro Uribe accused Hugo Chavez of funding the terrorist organization FARC. In its lightning raid across the Ecuadorian border to strike at FARC’s leadership, the Colombian army captured some critical intelligence at the camp of FARC leader Raul Reyes. Included in that was a thank-you note from Chavez for an earlier contribution to his own cause:

Colombia’s police chief, Gen. Oscar Naranjo, said documents recovered from a slain rebel leader’s computer indicate Chavez recently sent $300 million to Colombian guerrillas. He said another document indicates the rebels sent money to Chavez when he was a jailed coup leader more than a decade ago.

Naranjo said the files were recovered from a laptop owned by the rebel known as Raul Reyes, who was killed Saturday in a Colombian commando raid on a camp just across the border in Ecuador.

“A note recovered from Raul Reyes speaks of how grateful Chavez was for the 100 million pesos (about $150,000 at the time) that the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, delivered to Chavez when he was in prison,” Naranjo told a news conference in Bogota.

Colombia has long complained about the lack of response from Ecuador and Venezuela when FARC runs across the borders to avoid capture or combat. Now Uribe has an even better argument — that the support for narco-terrorists in Venezuela runs deeper than just turning a blind eye to their presence. Chavez apparently has them on the payroll.

Several nations have offered to assist in diplomacy to settle the conflict between Ecuador and Colombia, including the US. However, no one apparently wants to include Chavez in these talks. The incursion didn’t involve Venezuelan territory, and unless Chavez wants to admit that FARC is little more now than his proxy to undermine Uribe, the ranting socialist has no dog in this fight.

Will Venezuela back down? Or will Chavez make the mistake of acting overtly outside his borders and provide enough provocation to get a rapid response from the US?


TOPICS: Editorial; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: chavez; colombia; ecuador; farc; moneytrail; raulreyes; venezuela

1 posted on 03/03/2008 2:20:49 PM PST by jdm
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To: jdm
No wonder Hugo is pissed. Blowing up his buddies is not nice.
2 posted on 03/03/2008 2:27:05 PM PST by ANGGAPO (LayteGulf BeachClub)
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To: jdm
Will Venezuela back down? Or will Chavez make the mistake of acting overtly outside his borders and provide enough provocation to get a rapid response from the US?

What can the U.S. do? Doesn't Bush need Congressional approval to go to war with Ecuador and Venezuela?
3 posted on 03/03/2008 2:29:10 PM PST by microgood
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To: microgood
Give Columbia a flock of military equipment tomorrow. Simple.
4 posted on 03/03/2008 2:30:54 PM PST by JasonC
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To: jdm
And the other shoe drops - as I predicted when the war scare was first announced.
5 posted on 03/03/2008 2:31:30 PM PST by JasonC
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To: jdm

Sounds like they have intelligence to indict Chavez for international terrorism.

Maybe we can do a Noreiga on him.


6 posted on 03/03/2008 2:33:17 PM PST by txzman (Jer 23:29)
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To: jdm

“This is FARCin’ war!”


7 posted on 03/03/2008 2:33:52 PM PST by dfwgator (11+7+15=3 Heismans)
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To: All

Gee, I wonder if this important news will be broadcast to the Venezuelans on all of Chavez’ state owned stations????


8 posted on 03/03/2008 2:44:13 PM PST by Alright_on_the_LeftCoast
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To: dfwgator

Those farcin basteeches and ice holes will not deter us!


9 posted on 03/03/2008 2:47:27 PM PST by Tulane
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To: jdm

FARC a terrorist organization? Nah, they are just some disgruntled youths Clinton pardoned.


10 posted on 03/03/2008 2:56:58 PM PST by 5thGenTexan
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To: jdm
Chavez gave $300M to FARC terrorists

That's a LOT of milk and bread for the peasants, hugo...

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11 posted on 03/03/2008 3:21:41 PM PST by Caipirabob (Communists... Socialists... Democrats...Traitors... Who can tell the difference?)
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